{"title":"Comstock Books","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"guide-to-the-birds-of-trinidad-and-tobago-book-richard-ffrench-9780801497926","title":"A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom reviews of the previous edition--\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe island nation of Trinidad and Tobago has long served as a window on South American birdlife. Birders have been visiting the two islands in large numbers since the 1960s, when Asa Wright converted an unproductive plantation into one of the first neotropical 'ecotourist traps.' Anyone traveling to Trinidad and Tobago shouldn't leave home without this work.\u003c\/i\u003e--\u003ci\u003eJournal of Field Ornithology\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis book will be wanted by any birder visiting Trinidad and Tobago, as well as by many ornithologists as a general reference.\u003c\/i\u003e--\u003ci\u003eWilson Bulletin\u003c\/i\u003eMembers of nearly all the families of South American birds can be found on the two beautiful West Indian islands of Trinidad and Tobago, where the pleasant climate, varied habitat, and avian diversity create a birder's paradise. This easy-to-use book is the third edition of a comprehensive yet compact field guide to all 477 species of the islands' birds, including 35 new species accounts added to the country's bird list since the last edition. Richard ffrench's work has been a bible to birders since the appearance of the first edition in 1973. This new edition incorporates five decades of his notes and records of the island's birds to present in a handy and readable form detailed and comprehensive information about the birds of Trinidad and Tobago.Showcasing 40 all-new color plates by the very best bird artists working under the direction of John P. O'Neill, the third edition now includes illustrations of not only the islands' endemic and resident species, but also the many migratory species that visit the islands from both the north and the south. The taxonomic arrangement and treatment of families and species has also been brought in line with the most recent determinations of the A.O.U. Committee on Nomenclature for a thoroughly up-to-date presentation. In his introduction, Richard ffrench offers a full treatment of the history of ornithology in Trinidad and Tobago and sets the scene by describing the islands' physiography, climate, and vegetation. Individual species accounts, arranged by family, make up the core of this identification guide. The accounts cover habitat and status, range and subspecies, field description and basic measurements, voice, food, nesting, and behavior. Richard ffrench's summary of the distribution of species and their breeding and migration, as well as local conservation and protection measures, makes this volume much more than a typical field-guide treatment, and invites visitors to this premier ecotourism destination.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49565814980881,"sku":"GOR006397451","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50415156330769,"sku":"CIN0801497922G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50420476051729,"sku":"CIN0801497922VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51695841509649,"sku":"GOR012107007","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0801497922.jpg?v=1751043090"},{"product_id":"insects-revealed-book-jacques-de-tonnancour-9780801440236","title":"Insects Revealed","description":"In the 1980s, De Tonnancour ended his career as a respected painter of natural history subjects to dedicate himself to photographing the creatures that have fascinated him since childhood. 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This text offers accounts from experts in avian migration who reveal not only the biology but also their sense of beauty and excitement at this natural spectacle. The book features 32 pages of colour photographs with additional black and white photographs throughout. Two chapters of background information on migration precede chapters that focus on different species or groups of birds and the localities essential to their survival - from the spring flights of songbirds across the Gulf of Mexico to the massing of sandhill cranes on the Platte River. 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We've heard stories of flocks of passenger pigeons once darkening the skies over North America, only to be reduced to a single bird, Martha, who perished in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1914. Errol Fuller's illustrated \"Extinct Birds\" provides details of the natural history and fates of more than 80 species of birds now believed to be gone forever. Fuller conveys accurate scientific and historical information about the lives, times and disappearances of bird species since 1600. His species accounts are vivid reminders of what birds, precisely, the world has already lost. The physical evidence provided by preserved specimens is given narrative texture with Fuller's use of eyewitness accounts of the lives (and, in many cases, the last days) of bird species from all over the world. Nearly all the accounts in \"Extinct Birds\" are illustrated with colour plates, many by artists, including Audubon, Keulemans and Lear, who had the advantage of working from fresh specimens or even from living birds. These paintings are also primary sources of scientific knowledge. Birds for which appropriate illustrations did not already exist are shown in new paintings produced especially for this book. The revised edition of \"Extinct Birds\" includes several species - among them three from North America - not covered in the original 1987 edition. More happily, two species have been rediscovered in the intervening years and several others in danger of being declared extinct have been located again. 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For those who want to take that second long look to interpret what they see, the authors discuss some aspects of evolution, ecology, and behavior of Costa Rican birds, and report on the costly and courageous conservation efforts the country is making in face of discouraging odds. The family and species accounts that follow, covering some 400 pages, make up the bulk of the book, with 52 magnificent color plates illustrating virtually ever species of Costa Rican bird, migrants as well as residents. 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Why have we allowed our environment to reach such a crisis? What produced the catastrophic population explosion that so taxes the earth's resources? Reg Morrison's search for answers led him to ponder our species' evolutionary success. His book describes how a spiritual outlook combined with a capacity for rational thought have enabled Homo sapiens to prosper through millennia. He depicts these traits as part of our genetic makeup - and as the likely cause of our ultimate downfall against the inexorable laws of nature. Several million years ago, small bands of apes walked erect on the dangerous plains of East Africa. Morrison marvels that they not only survived, but migrated to all corners of the earth and established civilizations. To understand this feat, he takes the reader back to a critical moment, when these hominids developed language and with it the unique ability to think abstractly. He shows how at this same time, they began to derive increasing advantage from their growing sense of spirituality. He depicts spirituality as an evolutionary strategy that helped rescue our ancestors from extinction and drive the species toward global dominance. Morrison concludes that this genetically productive spirituality, which has influenced every aspect of our lives, has led us to overpopulate the world and to devastate our own habitats. 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